Early one morning his past September I'm fishing a back-bay in mid-coast Maine out of a canoe.
I got my arms rested on the gunnels and I'm just sitting there quietly picking out a "wind knot" when I hear this heavy breathing coming from right next to me.

I turn to see a seal's face right at my elbow....Close enough that it could have licked me.
Needless to say, I screamed like a little girl
The little guy just wanted to play. They're like that.

I know I have seen them the size of dinner plates and, possibly, a little bigger where I fish but nothing like a 100-pound freaking snapping turtle!! What did The Crocodile Hunter used to say? "Crikey!" I think.

I think you are 100% correct. I need to just experience it and, well, do it. All that **** brushing up against your legs has got to make you shiver.

The more this goes on, the more creepy it gets: trees, limbs, lily pads, garbage people may have thrown in there.

This brings up another thing I am sure I will run into: water snakes.

This is another irrational fear. For some reason, I have no problems with snakes on land. But when I see one swimming in the water, I freak out. Act like a little girl. I have never seen one more than about 3-4 feet and about the diameter of your rod handle--which isn't all that big--but I don't want to see any even 6-inches long and as fat as a pencil.

I hope this isn't taking you off topic, but have you given any thought to a canoe, or perhaps one of the light pontoon boats.

After stepping on treble hooks, two different times, while wading out there in my tube, I elected to go with canoes, and now have both a light 17' Kelvar Seda, that I can load on a TALL F250 4x4 Crew cab, and a considerably heavier 18' Wenonah that takes two of us to load, but seats both my son & I.

There are many options out there that would make for fewer worries for you!

I hope this isn't taking you off topic, but have you given any thought to a canoe, or perhaps one of the light pontoon boats.

After stepping on treble hooks, two different times, while wading out there in my tube, I elected to go with canoes, and now have both a light 17' Kelvar Seda, that I can load on a TALL F250 4x4 Crew cab, and a considerably heavier 18' Wenonah that takes two of us to load, but seats both my son & I.

There are many options out there that would make for fewer worries for you!

I have looked at those. I do not have access to a truck and the biggest vehicle I happen to have is a Nissan Sentra. I do not have anyplace to put a canoe at my house.

OK, here's a good Snapping Turtle story. My niece when she was about 5 years old came running up to my brother inlaw (her Dad) and I, carrying a blue plastic bathroom trash can. She starts yelling as she runs towards us "Great news! I caught a pet turtle!" She gets about 10 feet away and stops, flips the can over and dumps a Snapping Turtle out that I kid you not, barely fit in the dang thing. As my brother inlaw and I collided with each other trying to get her out of the way of it's now quite angry little head, we yelled like it was stereo "Look out!". It didn't get her and I have no idea how she got it in the can in the first place, but Jay and I scared her far worse than the turtle did.

By the way, have you ever heard of a turtle attacking a float tuber? No you have not. They don't do it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meatco1

After stepping on treble hooks, two different times, while wading out there in my tube, I elected to go with canoes,

You could have also gone with fins big enough to go over your wading boots like I did.

You probably don't want to hear this, but now that I think about it, I got attacked by an otter once while fishing from a float tube.
Came at me with teeth bared and snarling.
I did a little screaming that day too plus a lot of slapping on the water with my rod.
Probably that's as far as it was going to go, but he got his point across.
I got the message and got the hell out of there.

I had a family of Otters that were not terribly happy with me fishing by the bridge a few Summers back. The made some racket at me but never got less than 20' from me. One day I turned around to see two of the little ones digging through the bag I keep my two hander stuff in. They didn't hurt anything, just started rummaging around in it. No harm no foul.

I really like the Porta-Bote but there is no freaking way I will spend the amount of money they want for that thing. But I can hang it on my garage wall and carry it on the side of my car!

I am looking for something that is CHEAP and VERY PORTABLE and VERY LIGHT. Neither of these satisfy everything.

These are very tough little boats!

3 of us took a trip up to Alaska, and took two of these little boats, folded up, and tucked under the wings of a float plane. We drifted back down the Dawson
River for 10 days, and these boats took a beating, but just kept going.

That being said, we bought these because other than inflatables, they were the only choice for this trip. Much easier for us to fold, than work an air pump, not to mention, easier to patch with Duct tape than repair the inflatables!!

3 of us took a trip up to Alaska, and took two of these little boats, folded up, and tucked under the wings of a float plane. We drifted back down the Dawson
River for 10 days, and these boats took a beating, but just kept going.

That being said, we bought these because other than inflatables, they were the only choice for this trip. Much easier for us to fold, than work an air pump, not to mention, easier to patch with Duct tape than repair the inflatables!!

Richard,

Are you talking about the Porta-Botes? I am seriously thinking about one but not just yet. I still have two kids in school and one keeps changing her mind about what she wants to do when she grows up. I think she may be thinking she will want to care for her old man because he will be bankrupt if she changes majors again! Well, not that bad but, still, I need to take it easy for a little while longer.

I do want to get one of these bad boys eventually because they seem sturdy as heck.

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As far as the otters go, I don't need to worry about those things in Pittsburgh! Mammals don't seems to bother me like reptiles do. There is something extremely creepy and brutal about reptiles.

They look like they'd be a real pain to set up, not to mention a time sink. I can take my float tube out of the car and be on the water all loaded up in about 3 minutes.

Do you deflate a float tube just enough to get it into the car and then pump it up again when you want to use it? I cannot believe you would deflate it entirely all the time, would you?

I am thinking about one of those PortaBotes for when I retire and have all the time in the world. Not now! Certainly not now. But I can see that, even though they may be a little pain to put together, they may be nicer on old bones.